Claudine Perlet

Successful Transformations - Sustainable Results

Do you find yourself (or other top managers) increasingly saying, “I would make my business model more sustainable in a heartbeat if only there was a level playing field”? 

Of course, this implies that one cannot be expected to make any big changes unless others change in big ways, too. And while the economic considerations are fair enough, it still is a dead end when you think about it.

How to escape the deadlock? What if we were to utilize the massive lobbying machinery of big business to create level playing fields instead of continuing to focus primarily on self-interest? 

What if these kinds of ideas fail not because they are impossible, but because we lack imagination?

I keep getting asked why I left my job. Or I’m told how brave I am to have taken such a bold step. So much so that I feel inspired to share a bit more about it. 

First of all, and you may have already experienced it yourself: 

But what are the options?  

And yes … 

Bottom line

Maybe it is still brave to go down this path. But maybe it’s even more brave not to? That’s what it feels like to me, anyway, and I truly admire everyone who has the nerve to stay put. 

… if business is not boldly stepping up to help solve the world’s most difficult problems!

If you are one of the growing number of people seriously concerned about the state of the world, the role of business, and your own role in it, I know how you feel. 

After an intense 20 years in financial services, I saw an urgent need to upgrade my own operating system and gain new perspectives on change, innovation and the state of the world. My career had lost purpose, and the definition of success and progress as defined by my surroundings increasingly did not match with my own. Consequently, as some of you know, I dived right into a self-directed and equally inspiring and challenging learning journey.

Here are my key takeaways

  1. The next decade will show whether the world can come together as one and resolve an ever-growing number of severe challenges in a sustainable way. The one system uniquely positioned to facilitate rapid change is the world of business. In fact, it’s the most potent and powerful tool available to humanity today. If we finally get serious about using it!
  2. Sustainable and regenerative economic frameworks and respective business models will be at the core of the „next normal“. The question is not „if“, but „when“ and „how“. Business leaders and all of us need to answer for ourselves: Will I be part of shaping the future or will I be left behind
  3. Knowing” about the profound and interlocking crises we face and allowing it to fully sink in are two very different things. It’s pretty impossible to get there without stepping back and shifting perspective. Therefore, the common default mode of restless action and running even faster is not a promising path to a sustainable economy.
  4. Apart from destroying the planet’s ability to sustain life as we know it, the prospects of unsupervised exponential tech and overpowered AI, are daunting. So is the fact that the dominant reality of economics and finance, unfortunately, forms much of the root cause
  5. A wealth of new frameworks and promising pathways that aim to establish a more balanced economic model and reality already exist. Many people are very actively engaged in what seems like a parallel universe pretty much ignored by the mainstream and mainstream media
  6. As a result, truly progressive leadership continues to happen mainly at the edges. Center stage is primarily occupied with preserving the status quo and half-heartedly adding a “sustainability” label to the business model while the clock is ticking. This needs to change!

From niche to landscape!

Right there was the answer to the question why I had started a journey filled with so many uncertainties in the first place. I decided to dedicate the next phase of my life to contribute to making business part of the solution to 21st century challenges. To support business leaders make the shift from reactive to future-proof, and become champions of successfully innovating for the long-term considering the whole – while regaining a deep sense of purpose by aligning personal values with outer actions. 

And yes, it requires courage and a substantial shift. The will to adjust business models, markets and industries, reflect on the mental models we favor, the beliefs we have, and to substantially upgrading our own thought-ware. No one has said that it will be easy, but boldly stepping into the field of possibility (and admittedly uncertainty) may well be far more rewarding than holding on to something that is in the process of dying

The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn. –Alvin Toffler

If one subscribes to the notion introduced in Part IV that a new ecology of competencies and skills, is an essential prerequisite for a successful paradigm shift in business, it is likely to be the most challenging to-do list that humanity has been up against. Even more so as we have to make sure that the lights stay on during the transformation process. Changing the wheels at 100 miles per hour seems easy in comparison. The good news is, the curriculum is slowly taking shape and more and more people are starting to agree that substantial change is required in business, in ourselves and beyond. That we need to bring all stakeholders into the equation while putting people and purpose at the center of our organizations.

What is not so clear: How to get there while an agenda is just forming and very little of what’s missing is currently taught in a coherent way in our traditional institutions. Obviously, it all has to start with a willingness to stop working from outdated scripts and a commitment to think, feel and experiment beyond default modes. But this can only be the first step. Most importantly, and in addition to finding the most promising approaches to our own rewiring, we need to rediscover the joy of learning. From „knowing it all“ to „learning it all“. From IQ and EQ to embracing the Learnability Quotient, LQ.

The ones with an open and flexible mind, curious and eager to learn and keen to upskill will lead the pack. Progressive leaders and champions of the future will be those who are

Such new types differ greatly from today’s stereotype of a successful leader, where a lack of self-awareness, hiding inner and physical needs, and being the most impatient person in the room are still promising characteristics to make it to the top.

Although it may be daunting when the required shift and the substantial backlog fully sink in, there is no point getting stuck in a state of shock. The longer we wait, the more the gap between the individual and collective capabilities required to facilitate deep structural change and to come up with truly sustainable and regenerative solutions, and the capabilities we actually have, widens. Particularly people in positions of power need to urgently appreciate the severity of the skill gap and stop ignoring and underestimating the substantially adverse mid- and long-term effects.

What’s next? In the absence of a lot of viable alternatives, those who feel called to turn the ship are well advised to roll up their sleeves, break down the To Do’s in digestible chunks, and get started in big and small ways. Chances are, we still can innovate ourselves out of the current dilemma. It’s the most promising, if not the only option, and may well be be far more exciting than holding on to something that is already in the process of dying. The ability and willingness to admit that we do not know it all, that we need to learn and rise above our current evolutionary state will be crucial

All of this is NOT for later, it’s for NOW!

Business Reinvented is my contribution to the transformation agenda in business. It is the go-to platform for progressive leaders called to deeply transform big business into champions of sustainability and regeneration. If you are looking for a truly progressive curriculum and a trusted partner to support you find your unique role and contribution on this path, it may well be for you. For more information, click here.

I would also like to acknowledge that I have found great inspiration in the wisdom of remarkable pioneers, like Daniel Schmachtenberger, Daniel Wahl, Otto Scharmer, and many others (see About). 

The inability to imagine a world in which things are different is evidence only of a poor imagination, not of the impossibility of change. –-Rutger Bregman 

Cracking the code of the incremental change-cycle is important. While the factors explored in Part III are by no means conclusive, they need to be taken into account for what comes next. If not, chances are that the critical contribution business should and must make to solving 21st century challenges simply won’t happen. A scenario we cannot afford. In fact, our inability to transform business would soon be the latest addition to the ever-growing list of existential threats

Further, what happened to the digital companies must serve as a clear warning: If we stick to our mental frameworks and don’t start to question long-held beliefs and default-modes on a deeper level, we will simply produce another „factory“ of the same kind. Applied to the current situation this means, if we build sustainable business models, ESG frameworks, etc., based on our current mindset and without upgrading our own thought-ware and the way we lead, these models and frameworks will be absorbed by the big machine and we will further accelerate our own demise. Looking at the fast-spreading and still largely superficial hype around sustainability and the rapid rise of “greenwashing,” we can already see it happening.

Ultimately, it is up to us. All we need to do is decide, take a different perspective, see the huge potential, put ourselves into the space of possibility rather than doom, and cultivate it as normal. For example, nothing stops us from seeing and leveraging traditional corporations as resources of incredible potential. Just imagine the energy, motivation and creativity that could be unleashed if millions of people working for these companies worldwide had not already mentally resigned because they see no meaning in their work, as is often the case today.  What if they were able to earn a living energized by an appealing future vision that matches their own, in partnership with a company that is contributing to the solution rather than furthering the problem? And why should well-established and well-functioning multinational structures, as well as a wealth of expertise, not be able to be harnessed in the context of sustainability and regeneration? What if existing corporate lobbying structures were used to bring about structural change that orients companies beyond the obsession with quarterly numbers and towards coming up with long-term solutions to humanity’s pressing problems?

Of course, if it was that simple, we may well have already done it. Going down this path requires substantial adjustment and rewiring: Adjustments to established and emerging business models, markets and industries, and substantial rewiring of our own thought-ware. It also means getting serious about acknowledging the systemic flaws that got us here and putting ourselves into the equation – as well as coming to terms with the fact that what is happening around us is nothing that merely happens outside, but that what happens outside is a reflection of what happens inside of us. That it’s a reflection of the mental models we favor, the beliefs we have, the perspectives we take, the behaviors, habits and skills we have developed as a result and which are now dominating our actions and the choices we make. 

Therefore, as much as we need to enhance our capabilities to reinvent business models, markets and industries, as well as advocating structural change, we also need to reinvent ourselves. We need a new ecology of competencies and capabilities, a blend of next-level academic and theoretical know-how along with an upgrade of skills and capabilities having to do with us and our inner abilities. We need to decide what to take along on the journey, what to leave behind, and how to recalibrate the relevance of skills and capabilities and the value we place on them. 

What would such a new ecology of competencies and capabilities entail? Here are some examples that seem most urgent to address:

In addition, a number of things that have so far had a rather difficult time of being perceived as on par in a business world predominantly concerned with anything rational and measurable need to move right to the top of the up-skilling agenda – namely: self-knowledge, self-reflection, connectedness, humility, the ability to create and maintain trusting, collaborative relationships, a deeply felt sense of responsibility, and awareness of and commitment to one’s own vision and purpose, as well as values and goals that are essential to contributing to the benefit of the whole.

The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift. — Albert Einstein

Identifying the problem is more important than identifying the solution, because the accurate representation of the problem leads to the solution. –Albert Einstein.

To open the stage for more groundbreaking change and transformation, it is essential to have deeper and more meaningful conversations across opinion lines. Honest dialogue beyond polarization, moralizing, or completely ignoring one another. On this basis, and regardless which side one is on, finding common ground on what makes the status quo and incremental change so sticky seems key on the path to sustainable action in business and beyond. 

The following system features seem particularly relevant:

If a factory is demolished but the mental framework that created it is left in place, then that mental framework will simply produce another factory of the same kind. If a revolution destroys a government, but the pattern of thought that put in place that government is left intact, then that pattern will repeat itself. There is so much talk about systems. And so little understanding. –Robert Pirsig

„Are you calling for revolution of consciousness? a reporter once asked Peter Sloterdijk  – „The call lies in the circumstance“, he said.

The main problem with economics today (and the political economy that emerged) are some fundamental misunderstandings of the purpose of the economy, how humans behave, the moral and practical limits of markets, what we measure (and don’t), how we resolve issues of power and agency, and how to manage within planetary boundaries

We have established economics and economic competition as the essential measure of human success. We have put profit above all and introduced economic incentives where a dead tree is worth more than a healthy tree, where war is more profitable than peace, and where sick people are more profitable than healthy ones. Even if most of this has not emerged with bad intent initially, by now the consequences are severe and the negative impacts on people and planet are becoming ever more obvious.

Unsurprisingly, more and more people are wondering about a system that seems mainly preoccupied with protecting individuals in the accumulation of extreme wealth and that legitimizes massive levels of income and wealth inequality at the same time that it legalizes large-scale hazards, imposing them on everyone without a chance to escape. The list of disappointments at the personal level is also getting longer. People are waking up to the flawed promise that limitless happiness can be achieved through excessive consumerism. Many find themselves disillusioned, exhausted or burned out by the corporate game. Particularly millennials are less and less willing to accept the absence of purpose and meaning in their careers, let alone subscribe to crazy working hours or rigid hierarchies.

There is hope: Contrary to common belief and attempts to establish economics as a natural science alongside physics and other natural sciences, there are no iron laws of economics that prevent us from creating a more just, responsible, resilient and sustainable model. Of course, this realization is not new. Even on the world’s center stage top political and economic authorities seem to increasingly agree: To safeguard human civilization as we know it, we must fundamentally change the way our economies operate and move on from extractive, exclusive, and fragile, to respecting the natural boundaries of the planet and our own.

The growing number of systemic and holistic frameworks that aim to overcome the one-sidedness of the current system and establish a balanced economic model and reality is remarkable. Ideas such as Regenerative Economy, Sustainable and Conscious Capitalism, as well as Doughnut, Circular and Sharing Economy are gaining more and more traction. Numerous economists, scientists and policymakers have started to pool resources and offer new platforms such as the Wellbeing Economy Alliance, the Global Commons Alliance, the Next System Project or the Global Citizen Initiative. In Finance people with a lot of depth and experience are joining forces to change the paradigm beyond the ESG hype – the Capital Institute, Future Capital, AQAL Integral Investing, and Conscious Capital being examples of that.

On the corporate side the number of Certified B Corporations, social ventures, and organizations developing and promoting responsible business practices is growing rapidly. Commons are gaining traction and large-scale cooperatives, such as the Mondragón Cooperative in Spain, are demonstrating that it’s possible for companies to prosper without utilizing a shareholder-based profit model. Legislation authorizing the incorporation of “benefit corporations” is on the rise in the US and elsewhere. France has enacted legislation for the so-called “Entreprise à Mission” with Danone being the first listed company to apply the new framework to its articles of association and governance. In Germany, a civil society initiative for the introduction of a Gesellschaft mit gebundenem Vermögen has stimulated a most promising and constructive cross-party dialogue at the highest level.

Business leaders going down that path tend to share the belief that „business as usual” isn’t working. They are convinced that those who are building and scaling businesses have a responsibility to address urgent social and environmental inequalities, actualize a more just world and make business part of the solution. It comes with the willingness to change priorities, restructure the business model, shift the way business is done and be prepared to follow through personally, practically, and systemically. In traditional business, cases of ex-bankers, ex-managers, ex-C-Suite leaving highly paid positions are on the rise. The strait jackets of incremental budgeting, cost cutting, and a focus on short-term results over real progress towards sustainability and fundamental change is not cutting it for them anymore. 

Momentum is clearly building, but a lot of these developments can easily be missed if one is stuck in the rat race, caught up in outdated models of success, or generally too preoccupied with not being thrown off by the ever-accelerating pace of a changing world – and many are. As a result and despite a lot of encouraging developments, truly progressive leadership continues to happen mainly at the edges. Center stage continues to be primarily occupied with analysis, logical arguments, and strong forces preserving the status quo while half-heartedly adding a “sustainability” label to the next marketing campaign. Bottom line: Meaningful real-world action is rare while the clock is ticking

How to move from „knowing more“ to „knowing and doing better“? How to build tipping point momentum? No doubt, for all the ones who already feel called — from Business Leaders, Senior Executives and Managers to Solo Entrepreneurs and Tech Players now is the time to step up in big and small ways, and rise to the occasion! Real world action based on a solid grasp of the problem. Once that happens, it will change the world!

For all the ones just waking up or still having reservations: Sustainable and regenerative economic frameworks and respective business models will be at the core of the „next normal“. The question is not „if“, but „when“ and „how“. What business leaders need to answer for themselves is: Will I be part of shaping the future or will I risk being left behind?

There are no passengers on spaceship earth! We are all crew! –Marshall McLuhan

At the end of the decade sustainable business models and a new approach to our economic system will be part of the „next normal“.

Why? Because if not, we will be suffering ourselves out of existence.  

All of this can easily be missed when stuck in the rat race. It is impossible to miss when pressing the pause button and opening up to some uncomfortable truth. — me

The magnitude and speed of change we are currently living through cannot be overstated. It’s a severe shift in the human story and it tests us to the limit

The old is fading away and the new can barely be imagined. We are in between stories. The systems and institutions we have relied on to make sense and to manage the world around us are unravelling at an ever faster rate. Sovereign nation states acting on their own for their own are not equipped to address 21st century’s mounting challenges. International systems aren‘t either.

Accelerated by a virus, the cracks are becoming more and more obvious: Excessive bureaucracy, missed opportunities in digitalization, education systems failing to teach skills relevant in times of accelerated change, and political and economic systems stagnating, stuck in old paradigms and increasingly associated with ever larger and more outrageous scandals.

Still, we have come a long way and a lot has been achieved. The reduction of extreme poverty and infant mortality or the increase in life expectancy are examples of that. Now, however, we are up against a totally new set of existential threats. Our countermeasures to issues like degradation, mass extinction or inequality remind at best of rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic

In search of quick fixes, our institutional responses mainly rely on habitual reflexes without really taking the magnitude, inter-connectedness and global nature of the challenges into account. We double down on ever more prescriptive and complicated laws and regulations, narrow down on civil rights, and allow big tech, fake-news and polarization to spread as if it was nothing to be too worried about. In short: Our institutions are trying to solve 21st century challenges based on 20th century mind-sets and values, missing the fact that the primary cause of today’s threats is our very own behavior based on these very mind-sets and values.

At the same time – mostly outside the institutional sphere – there are signs of a new awakening, and norms and values are changing rapidly. The Climate Change-, #MeToo- and Black Lives Matter-movements are expressions of that. It is simply becoming a fact that at this rate we won’t be able to limit global warming to 1.5% degrees, that sexual harassment is painfully widespread and that we live in a world that was at large created by brutal European colonialism and supremacy not too long ago.

This is a big step from having all of these phenomena just utterly ignored, and it’s a long way from having appropriate responses generated and integrated into the big machine of our systems and institutions. The good news is that „new software“ is co-developed in a de-centralized fashion on the cultural edges with more and more people realizing the urgent need for a fundamental shift. At the cultural center, however, the vast majority is still occupied with business as usual, head in the sand or vigorously insisting that nothing of proven value exists to even consider larger changes to the status quo. And yes, a lot of the new is just emerging and far from complete, let alone sufficiently tested to allow for a system upgrade without complications. We truly are between stories and without an instruction manual.

What’s next? It seems likely that if we continue with business as usual and head in the sand, we will eventually reach a tipping point and end up in one of our historical default modes: “Oppression” or „Chaos“. We can watch the news or consult our history books to remind ourselves how tragically both of these strategies usually end. Even more so, as with fake-news, exponential tech and overpowered AI their toxic nature may well reach new heights. Looking at it this way, it seems obvious that now is the time to collectively wake up and get serious about exploring third way solutions!

But how? What does it take to exit well-established, deeply rooted default modes and do something that no one has ever done before? The areas requiring attention and action seem almost limitless. Many initiatives, projects, and experiments in many different fields are already underway, and many more are needed. It will take the sharpest minds, a lot of optimism, courage, creativity, and people willing to step up. And even though it seems somewhat daunting, what if it turns out to be much more fun than being afraid of change, weighed down by institutional inertia or overwhelmed by the social bias towards protecting the status quo at all cost? 

The one system uniquely positioned to facilitate rapid change is the world of business. It’s amazing what business can accomplish once it sets sail. And yes, it will be challenging and not for everyone. It requires an open mind and the willingness to look more deeply into and address the systemic flaws of our current economic and corporate model. For the brave ones, it may well turn out to be the most rewarding and worthwhile mission they have ever been part of.

Anything else you’re interested in is not going to happen if you can’t breathe the air or drink the water. Don’t sit this one out. Do something. –Carl Sagan